With the disappearance of the last private DVD rental company in Lyon, fans of this format will now have to turn to the public network formed by libraries and media libraries.
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Cinephiles and amateurs searched the catalogs of the Aquarium ciné-café de Lyon on September 9: the last private DVD rental company in the city is putting an end to this activity to devote itself to workshops. DVD can no longer resist streaming platforms which are increasingly expanding their offerings. So after seven years, the Aquarium ciné-café is pulling the curtain on DVD rental, to devote itself to its main activity of projection and workshops around the cinema. Decision was made to put its 12,000 titles up for sale.
In 2016, the association launched itself by agreeing to continue the video club activity of the previous owner, “as long as we could”, explains Clément Séguin, one of the five employees who held the reins of the rental activity. “We lasted seven years, because there were fewer and fewer rental companies. But it took time, management, it was starting to cost us money and it wasn’t stabilizing”he continues.
“There should be room for all types of use”
Clément Séguin belongs to the generation that grew up with DVDs, at a time when the internet had not yet become the main way of distributing films. “What’s a shame is that there should be room for all types of use. This mode remains the only physical solution”he regrets.
According to figures from the CNC (National Center for Cinema and Moving Image), video on demand represented 88% of the video market in 2021, compared to only 12% for the physical video sector. And the DVD rental profession is disappearing in France. In Lyon, the public network will remain, namely libraries and media libraries.
On the same line, the American giant Netflix, which is now a streaming veteran, announced in April that it would end its historic DVD rental service by mail, launched 25 years ago, arguing “the decrease in this activity”.